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***The FEBRUARY 2018 VUD is now available.***

At long last, some clarity on the permit "MX groups" I mentioned above.

It appears as if in Zacatecas, only the UAD station was approved, and in Cancún, they almost didn't give anyone a station. In Mochis, only three stations are being authorized.

Additionally, the IFT will not select social wolves here, saying that if the social applicant is related to commercial stations, it will not be continued.

Zacatecas

The IFT shut the door on the fifth mystery applicant, which was Arnoldo Rodríguez Zermeño. Sheesh!

Los Mochis

The applicant turned away was Música de Mis Recuerdos, A.C. (I believe this is related to Impulso a la Música Mexicana.)

Cancún

The oldest application was to La Voz del Padre Pío, which apparently was a wolf with connections even to commercial stations. The next oldest application is a private school: Instituto Americano Leonardo da Vinci, S.C. Some of the reticence to assign more stations came from IFT-4, where Cancún showed up as one of the most hotly contested cities. There was a ton of discussion on this, and da Vinci actually came out of the fray with a frequency — the only one they awarded!

The Tecnoradio saga lit up again this week with a new dispute between the IFT and one of the country's most well-known journalists.

Joaquín López-Dóriga accused the IFT of providing his name and that of El Universal columnist Javier Tejado Dondé as witnesses, even providing the PGR with their work addresses. (Tejado, you might recall, wrote the column that revealed a ton of information on Tecnoradio in May.) López-Dóriga warned that the IFT was going after journalists instead of those who were responsible for the actual fraud.

IFT-6 is over now, and that means television virtual channel 6 is up for grabs. Multimedios Televisión is taking it right away, abandoning its longtime 12 on February 24, the 50th anniversary of XHAW signing on the air.

There are a couple of practical reasons. The first has to do with the distribution of commercial TV stations. The double-digit numbers seem to be becoming a no-man's-land with a high concentration of public and noncommercial broadcasters, plus a handful of locals. Moving to 6 puts MMTV right in the center of the action especially in these new markets and precludes new broadcasters, like Telsusa (with which MM will overlap in Puebla), from taking that high-demand dial position.

The other has to do with IFT-6 in its own way. Multimedios will be entering the Durango market, which has a local 12, and its new VHF TV station in Mexico City may have partial overlap with the signals of the Hidalgo state network, also using VC 12.

Foro TV's national advance continues with Morelia (XHMOW), Guadalajara (XHG) and Puebla (XHP), as well as San Luis Potosí (XHSLT). Morelia is the first C5 + Foro combo. SLP is the first C5 + Gala + Foro combo.

The Culiacán forest is cleared. Nearly two years after they were tabled at the IFT, Culiacán's permit backlog is resolved. As might have been predicted, the wolves were kept at bay, and only the Universidad Autónoma de Durango was cleared. They now have 7 stations and coverage in all three major cities in the state.

Unfortunately, XHLNC-FM is calling it quits as of March 1. The reasons why are unknown at this time (edit: lack of funds), though the streaming is staying alive.

The 104.9 frequency will be extremely valuable if they want to assign the concession to another party. This is the Tijuana area's lone social, non-educational station (XHITT is social, but that's just because it's owned by a patronato).

XHLNC-FM: The Last Link to Califórmula

XHLNC-FM was something of Víctor Díaz's legacy gift to the two Californias. Califórmula, the successful broadcaster he created using Mexican stations, his family's connections to the radio business, and American-style administration and formatting, was slowly unwinding. Díaz was retiring — he would pass on in 2004, having sold the stations slowly (Clear Channel picked up the US rights to 90.3 and 99.3 — which later had to be sold to MVS — while Grupo Imagen snatched 104.5). The concession for XHLNC remained in the hands of his daughter, Martha Margarita Barba de la Torre.

It was permitted as XHTNA-FM 90.7 in January 2000, picking up the reins from an online station started two years prior. XHTNA-FM soon changed its calls to XHLNC-FM, after XLNC1, the name of the online station. It broadcast from the Califórmula FM tower, still used by its former stations and now by Imagen TV in Tijuana. The problem for XLNC was north of the border, namely mixing of grandfathered KPFK off Mount Wilson in Los Angeles with its signal.

To pursue a power upgrade, XHLNC had to move, not just frequencies, but tower sites. In June 2007, XHLNC-FM got the necessary domestic and international approvals to take its stick to Cerro Bola, in the municipality of Tecate, and become a Class C1 station on 104.9 MHz. On February 10, 2008 —*ten years ago tomorrow — XHLNC launched its higher-power signal and joined XHHIT-FM 95.3 atop Cerro Bola. (XHPRS-FM would eventually make it three's company when it moved in 2010.) And that's where we've been ever seen.

Now, XHLNC will go dark. The implications are rather massive, given the rarity of FM radio frequencies in Tijuana, the fact that not even the obvious open ones (97.7) have been reassigned, and the cultural hole XHLNC will leave both north and south of the border.

That 104.9 frequency is mighty tempting for a private university, a social wolf, or all sorts of other projects. Given the timing, if XHLNC surrenders its permit later this year, it would probably not appear until the 2019 PABF, and it could be a while from then until it's awarded to another group. If they want to keep the frequency active, XLNC1 should consider transferring the concession to another noncommercial entity.

There's been a surprising amount of station activity in the last few days.

Tests began today for XHPTAC-FM in Tacambaro, Michoacán, pretty quickly after getting the tower up.

Additionally, one of the first Article 90 clears has moved to its new frequency. XHCBJ-FM Cancún is now on 101.9 MHz, as the IFT instructed them to move to clear the reserved band. They moved on February 5.

While most A90 clears don't have other changes, XHCBJ had been unable to operate with its normal facilities. In fact, their registered tower site had no tower! We now finally know why.

The theme of World Radio Day this year was Sports and Radio, and I think it is an interesting one in Mexico given that there are extremely few sports radio stations.

The roster of sports stations in Mexico is thin. There's XEX-AM 730 and its Guadalajara semi-satellite, XEHL 1010. Also in Guadalajara is Frecuencia Deportiva, now on XEDKT 1340. Monterrey has RG La Deportiva on 690. In Tijuana/San Diego, the ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes affiliates (XEPE and XESS) are both Mexican stations.

That's not to say sports programming isn't on just these stations, and I think that's where the difference is. Mexican stations are more likely to have shows that break format than their counterparts north of the border. Sports shows appear on all sorts of stations in all sorts of cities. Not only do sometimes multiple stations in Liga MX cities offer live radio coverage of games, which is especially vital given that the FMF (national soccer federation) does not permit many TV broadcasts of home games, but there are sports talk shows on radio stations, both commercial and noncommercial. Local sports sometimes gets coverage and airtime on even the smallest of stations.